Just don't be Robert Jordan and spend three pages describing buttons on a dress or whatever. Please don't. 
Clothing in fantasy novel
- Thread starter benthomas97
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True. Don't go overboard... unless the scene calls for some young girl to be fascinated by clothing at some event, store, or encounter. Or young guy.
One point is you can add the details in small snippets. A good case is say someone tracking another person. Threads and lost ornaments lead to some idea of their prey, boot prints, imprints of seams when kneeling/sitting lead to more details. But in small pieces.
One point is you can add the details in small snippets. A good case is say someone tracking another person. Threads and lost ornaments lead to some idea of their prey, boot prints, imprints of seams when kneeling/sitting lead to more details. But in small pieces.
I don't know if it would help you to see others notes on a society or not. I know I got a bit detailed on one society, as I was trying to show different family/clans by the clothes they wore, which proved important to the protagonist. A that time, he hunted a killer who left behind little bits of the clothes and impressions of clothes in the earth as she worked her evil.
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People don't have to be young to pay close attention to clothes.
At the court of Louis XIV the changes in fashion were minutely and mercilessly scrutinized by everyone present, and the wrong trim on the cravat or the wrong width of sleeve cuff could doom a courtier to the hinterlands and loss of any hope of influence forever. Canny old courtiers paid a lot of attention to clothes.
Samuel Pepys, a middle aged man, was delighted by new fashions and the details of his clothes.
Plenty of older men and women of substance, from Roman times (and probably earlier) to the present, have left letters and household records detailing lengths and types and prices of fabrics to be bought, dyes to be used, garments to be made up, and long, long, long records of what was in their wardrobe.
That much detail makes for terrible fiction.
But an understanding of it makes for a much more lifelike and realistic world, even if it is never explicitly spelled out.
Unless that item is integral to your story. Again, keep the detail down. I know I went overboard with one story where bits and pieces of clothes led my character to his foe in the end. But not sure how or where it went wrong to this day. Which is why i am still just a writer-in-training, not a published writer.
I know a lot of readers who skip those kinds of details. They still love the books, but when it comes to red samite gowns and rustic soups of onion and beans, they just start skimming.
As a writer, I'd rather put in the details and have my readers skip them then leave the details out and have people tell me I need more.
As a writer, I'd rather put in the details and have my readers skip them then leave the details out and have people tell me I need more.
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It's one of those balanced craft things.
I've never been very fond of stories that stop dead to describe an outfit in great detail. But a brief mention of an important plot element such as "she went out in public without any kind of hat on, shocking the locals" can convey quite a lot about a culture.
If there is no significant difference between the details of the fantasy world and expected common fantasy tropes and current everyday life, then perhaps they are better left not mentioned.
A better practice, I think, is to grow the world organically and think how it interrelates and how that affects what people do and wear and think, and let that come out in the writing.
One does have to be careful about terms. Most modern readers don't know what samite is, and it would be better to say something like a heavy, glossy silk. Rather than use words from Victorian pseudo-medieval romances, or even from costume history books which are notoriously inaccurate in their terminology, I think it best to use clear visual descriptions.
I've noticed that authors who have a background with different kinds of clothing might be better at subtly differentiating it. We kid GRRM about his level of detail, but historians tend to notice things about clothing styles, meanings, and sumptuary laws. C.S. Friedman is an expert costumer, Jacqueline Carey has done costuming and Mardi Gras parades. Many current and former Society for Creative Anachronism folks also write fiction, and use a strong knowledge of clothing to help flavor their work. Do some go overboard? Yeah, three pages about one dress isn't good for anything but Bridezilla P0rn.
To me, it's another level of worldbuilding that shows me how much or how little thought the author put into their story. If the clothing is generic 'medieval' with no background or detailing, odds are the setting, characters, and plot could be, as well.
To me, it's another level of worldbuilding that shows me how much or how little thought the author put into their story. If the clothing is generic 'medieval' with no background or detailing, odds are the setting, characters, and plot could be, as well.
Yeah, focusing too heavily on clothing can be really distracting. A Song of Ice and Fire is a good example. Martin will sometimes write an entire paragraph on what everyone's wearing and it's enough to make me lose attention.
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One thing we who live in the era of the factory and the sewing machine often forget: whatever the style, people had a lot less clothing back when the fibers had to be hand-spun, the fabric hand-woven, and the garments hand-sewn. Even long after the medieval period, Jane Austen describes a man as wealthy by saying he has two new coats a year.
So whatever your characters wear, be aware they'll wear it over and over again.
So whatever your characters wear, be aware they'll wear it over and over again.
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There's the real point: It's "stop and describe" that's annoying -- literally a halt in the story to rub our noses in some detail.
If you work in your description "organically", you can have as much or more of it, yet never poke the reader in the eye with it.
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I'm reading something right now where the author goes overboard on descriptions... and it's not the amount, it's that she does "the A of the B from the C with the D in the style of E adorned with F..." (and yes, some are literally that long) all in one sentence. I've got to where if I see the beginning of such a description, I know I can skip to the next period and not miss anything (especially as the world built itself fine without all this extranea).
OP, is clothing important to your story? Like Alessandra Kelley mentioned above, sometimes clothing is important to the society characters live in and can represent a great deal. If that is the case, maybe do some research into clothing patterns and things and retrofit them into your fantasy world (with your own flavor to them, of course!)
If clothing is not really that important and this is a made-up fantasy world, you're under almost no obligation to put your characters in tunics or corsets or whatever. You can just say something like "So-in-so wore a soft, long-sleeved shirt and coarse pants for traveling" and be done with it.
If clothing is not really that important and this is a made-up fantasy world, you're under almost no obligation to put your characters in tunics or corsets or whatever. You can just say something like "So-in-so wore a soft, long-sleeved shirt and coarse pants for traveling" and be done with it.
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Sometimes you can get the clothing descriptions in by having the characters get into a disagreement over it. I have a scene where it starts raining, and one of the characters takes out this bright pink umbrella with flowers. The other character refuses to get under it because it's too feminine. They have a minor disagreement about it, and then later a second one because he's getting pretty wet. And when it was critiqued, everyone commented on how that umbrella defined both characters.
personally, I prefer to offer a brief description of a few important items and let the reader's mind go. Because honestly, a hundred different people can read the same extensive description of a shirt, and come up with a hundred different mental images. A brief, consise description of a few items can do wonders for creating an image. Hit on the important points and move on.
She wore men's riding boots with trousers, a long black coat, and a tricorn hat.
The Centurions stood at attention, faces stern under their crested helmets.
He was wearing a ragged black skull t-shirt, torn jeans, and a positively ancient pair of Doc Marten's.
See what I did there? One sentence each, but your mind creates the image, fills in the blanks. I don't need to tell you about the gleaming armor of the centurions or what their leather skirts look like, because everybody knows that. Same with the last guy- He's probably got a studded belt and bracelets, or some other sort of punk/metal accessories, but it's not important and you'll ultimately create your own image anyways. Use the words efficiently, and don't underestimate your reader's imaginations.
She wore men's riding boots with trousers, a long black coat, and a tricorn hat.
The Centurions stood at attention, faces stern under their crested helmets.
He was wearing a ragged black skull t-shirt, torn jeans, and a positively ancient pair of Doc Marten's.
See what I did there? One sentence each, but your mind creates the image, fills in the blanks. I don't need to tell you about the gleaming armor of the centurions or what their leather skirts look like, because everybody knows that. Same with the last guy- He's probably got a studded belt and bracelets, or some other sort of punk/metal accessories, but it's not important and you'll ultimately create your own image anyways. Use the words efficiently, and don't underestimate your reader's imaginations.
I tend to obsess about clothing in my novels... it's actually pretty important for my setting. Of course, my novels are a fantasy version of the Elizabethan era, so it's rather appropriate I suppose.
If I were writing swords and sandals fantasy full of loincloths and bare breasts, I wouldn't bother describing much aside from colors or materials. "It was a leather thong" "It was a ragged piece of cloth that chaffed"... =P
If I were writing swords and sandals fantasy full of loincloths and bare breasts, I wouldn't bother describing much aside from colors or materials. "It was a leather thong" "It was a ragged piece of cloth that chaffed"... =P
You might want to take a look at the Smoke and Fire website. It has a section on clothing and one on books with a lot of clothing patterns books.
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While I see your point, here;s what I do, and I happen to know several best selling authors who do the same. Whenever I start on a book, I start a document with characters, descriptions and locations.
In the descriptions, for my personal reference I describe the types of clothes they would normally wear (along with other key points).
I may never use that information, but it's there if I need it.
I'm a very descriptive writer though, so it may be different for others.
Some things to think about regarding clothing:
1. What is available to your people? Plant fibers tend to dye poorly. Animal fibers better. Silk best still. Animal fibers tend to be very warm to wear, though. Egyptians got around hot weather + lots of linen by making lovely beaded over-dresses. Minoan, women, though, wove colored wool into intricate patterns. No matter what people are wearing, some industry needs to support it. If you're describing a rugged frontier society where everything is self-made and there are plenty of sheep but nothing else...then someone shows up in a silk dress, there are problems. (Or they have cotton, but vivid patterns - it's hard to create those on cotton as it dyes poorly.) OTOH, if you have trade coming in from everywhere, I can buy vivid colors + all kinds of fabrics.
2. How much stratification is there between the rich and the poor? I can totally buy even a low tech - but highly stratified society - having some fancy clothing. If your world is low tech + highly egalitarian, though, people probably *aren't* going to be wearing tons of incredibly intricate clothing (although there may be some fancy embroidery - people often do all kinds of things during their time off to make their every day objects pretty). Also, your every day people probably aren't going to have very much clothing. Anne of Green Gables takes place in a post-industrial society but she still has three dresses. THREE. This is because clothing is quite expensive. If you have a high queen with millions of subjects, sure, I can see her changing her outfit several times a day. But your every day people probably have several shifts + maybe a nice dress, an okay dress, and a dress they wear pretty much every day. Your average peasant does not have a massive wardrobe.
3. Cutting cloth wastes some. From above, remember that cloth = very expensive + time consuming. This is why a lot of garments (i.e. togas, chitons, tunics, etc.) are pretty much one size fits all + don't involve a lot of cutting. Tightly tailoring clothing appears to be something that primarily happens when technology makes cloth cheap enough that people are okay wasting it.
4. If your people are working, they're probably wearing clothing that they can work in. IF they're not, they may well be showing off how they *don't* need to work. Examples of this range from women staying out of the sun to remain very pale...to long sleeves, foot binding, high platformed shoes, enormous shoes, huge skirts, etc.
1. What is available to your people? Plant fibers tend to dye poorly. Animal fibers better. Silk best still. Animal fibers tend to be very warm to wear, though. Egyptians got around hot weather + lots of linen by making lovely beaded over-dresses. Minoan, women, though, wove colored wool into intricate patterns. No matter what people are wearing, some industry needs to support it. If you're describing a rugged frontier society where everything is self-made and there are plenty of sheep but nothing else...then someone shows up in a silk dress, there are problems. (Or they have cotton, but vivid patterns - it's hard to create those on cotton as it dyes poorly.) OTOH, if you have trade coming in from everywhere, I can buy vivid colors + all kinds of fabrics.
2. How much stratification is there between the rich and the poor? I can totally buy even a low tech - but highly stratified society - having some fancy clothing. If your world is low tech + highly egalitarian, though, people probably *aren't* going to be wearing tons of incredibly intricate clothing (although there may be some fancy embroidery - people often do all kinds of things during their time off to make their every day objects pretty). Also, your every day people probably aren't going to have very much clothing. Anne of Green Gables takes place in a post-industrial society but she still has three dresses. THREE. This is because clothing is quite expensive. If you have a high queen with millions of subjects, sure, I can see her changing her outfit several times a day. But your every day people probably have several shifts + maybe a nice dress, an okay dress, and a dress they wear pretty much every day. Your average peasant does not have a massive wardrobe.
3. Cutting cloth wastes some. From above, remember that cloth = very expensive + time consuming. This is why a lot of garments (i.e. togas, chitons, tunics, etc.) are pretty much one size fits all + don't involve a lot of cutting. Tightly tailoring clothing appears to be something that primarily happens when technology makes cloth cheap enough that people are okay wasting it.
4. If your people are working, they're probably wearing clothing that they can work in. IF they're not, they may well be showing off how they *don't* need to work. Examples of this range from women staying out of the sun to remain very pale...to long sleeves, foot binding, high platformed shoes, enormous shoes, huge skirts, etc.
Your work is your own. If you don't want your characters to be wearing tunics, you don't have to have them wearing tunics. One of the fun parts of writing fantasy, is that you can make anything happen. What type of equipment is available for the tailors? Are there strange creatures in your story that don't exist in real life? Perhaps their skin/fur has a different quality that is worthy of creating clothes that our world would never imagine. It is your story. You have the freedom to have them wear whatever you'd like them to wear.
Have you seen the movie, Black Knight, starring Martin Lawrence? The movie has a medieval setting and most of the characters are dressed in clothing that most would expect knights or peasants to wear. Then Jamal Walker enters the movie wearing a modern clothing.
I realize in your story, the clothing would be normal, the characters wouldn't recognize such a display of clothing, as in Black Knight. But, they can still wear whatever you want them to wear. If all the men wear mini skirts, then it won't seem weird to other characters within your story. It might seem a bit odd for your readers though!
Have you seen the movie, Black Knight, starring Martin Lawrence? The movie has a medieval setting and most of the characters are dressed in clothing that most would expect knights or peasants to wear. Then Jamal Walker enters the movie wearing a modern clothing.
I realize in your story, the clothing would be normal, the characters wouldn't recognize such a display of clothing, as in Black Knight. But, they can still wear whatever you want them to wear. If all the men wear mini skirts, then it won't seem weird to other characters within your story. It might seem a bit odd for your readers though!
Clothing is more than protection from the elements. It's the chief way an individual can show his or her place in a society, and by adherence to social convention or defiance of it, how he or she views that place and the society as a whole. The extent to which a society regulates clothing is also telling, and the cultural level of a country will show in its tailoring and decoration, or lack thereof.
So, yeah. I like to see some details on clothing in a story, in direct proportion to how important clothing is to the characters. In my "small-scale" epic fantasy, characters always notice the clothing, jewelry and hair of strangers, because these things rigidly define the stranger's caste. Someone dressing above his station could expect a quick smack-down, while someone dressing beneath it had to be up to something....
So, yeah. I like to see some details on clothing in a story, in direct proportion to how important clothing is to the characters. In my "small-scale" epic fantasy, characters always notice the clothing, jewelry and hair of strangers, because these things rigidly define the stranger's caste. Someone dressing above his station could expect a quick smack-down, while someone dressing beneath it had to be up to something....
Use them for story purposes. Don't go into what your MCs are wearing unless it adds to the world, the characters, or the plot. Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time does a pretty good job of this. See: Matrim Cauthon in Ebou Dar.
I am obsessed with fictional clothing,just as I am with clothes in real life. I adore fashion!
I tend to get a tad-ahem-carried away. So,I have to control the impulse to write super detailed descriptions. I used traditional African clothing and current fashion designers,with a dose of Elizabethan sumptuary laws to explain the differences between social classes in terms of materials they wear.
I agree with everyone else. Don't get too carried away and do some research for your characters clothing choices. Mutive's post is terrific and is a good starting point.
I tend to get a tad-ahem-carried away. So,I have to control the impulse to write super detailed descriptions. I used traditional African clothing and current fashion designers,with a dose of Elizabethan sumptuary laws to explain the differences between social classes in terms of materials they wear.
I agree with everyone else. Don't get too carried away and do some research for your characters clothing choices. Mutive's post is terrific and is a good starting point.
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